Border restrictions on Balkan route "ruining" Europe -Greek PM

BERLIN, March 4 (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Alexis
Tsipras has accused Austria and Balkan countries of "ruining
Europe" by imposing border restrictions to slow the flow of
migrants heading north from Greece.

Austria angered Greece by not inviting it to a meeting of
Balkan leaders in Vienna last week to coordinate a slew of
border restrictions. Some 30,000 migrants are now
stranded in Greece, waiting for Macedonia to reopen its border
so they can continue their northward trek, mostly to Germany.

"What those countries agreed on and decided goes against all
of the rules and against the whole of Europe and we regard it as
unfriendly," Tsipras told Germany's mass-selling Bild newspaper
in an interview due to be published on Saturday.

"These countries are ruining Europe!"

Tsipras urged his European Union partners to reject
unilateral measures at a summit in Brussels on Monday. The
summit will discuss progress on protecting the EU's external
borders and helping Greece to cope with the influx of migrants,
who mostly arrive by sea from Turkey.

"The situation is difficult but not out of control," Tsipras
said. "We have fulfilled more than 100 percent of our
commitments, whereas others have not even fulfilled 10 percent
and prefer to criticise us."

Germany, which has taken in more than a million migrants in
the past year, strongly backs mandatory migrant quotas for all
EU member states, but some countries, especially in former
communist eastern Europe, are opposed to them.
(Writing by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Gareth Jones)